How to Clean Up Steel? Bacteria, Hydrogen and a Lot of Cash

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/17/business/steel-emissions-arcelor-mittal.html

Source: By Stanley Reed, The New York Times. 

Excerpt: ...steel mills are among the leading polluters. They burn coke, a derivative of coal, and belch millions of tons of greenhouse gases. Roughly two tons of carbon dioxide rises into the atmosphere for every ton of steel made using blast furnaces. With climate concerns growing, a crunch appears inevitable for these companies. Carbon taxes are rising, and investors are wary of putting their money into businesses that could be regulated out of existence. None of this has been lost on the giant steel maker ArcelorMittal. For half a century, Lakshmi Mittal devoted himself to building and running what became the world’s largest empire of huge steel mills, employing nearly 170,000 people. Now his son, Aditya Mittal, 44, who recently succeeded his father as chief executive, says the industry that has made the family’s name and fortune needs to change its polluting ways. “The largest challenge the world is going to face over the next 30 years is how we decarbonize,” he said. ...The company is spending 325 million euros (about $390 million) on pilot programs that include making steel with hydrogen and using bacteria to turn carbon dioxide into useful chemicals. The amount is less than 1 percent of the company’s 2020 revenue. ...“We can now imagine that it is possible to make steel without carbon emissions,” he said....